King owns SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge

Laughlin, Nevada - Veteran desert racer Larry Roeseler lit up the Laughlin night, setting an event record in winning SCORE Laughlin Leap competition.  Roeseler thrilled the standing-room only crowd of nearly 5,000, winning the Trophy-Truck division by sending his King Shock furnished No. 88 SCORE Trophy-Truck off the six-foot dirt jump for an event record distance of 161 feet, 6 inches.  Roeseler eclipsed the event In the unlimited Class 1 division for open-wheel desert race cars, James Scott, recorded a long jump of 156’, outdistancing the competition with his King shock suspended RPS-Chevy.

In the Restricted Cars, the winner was Justin Davis, whose winning jump was 113’ 6” in a Wicked-VW SCORE Lite race car which is also King Shocks equipped.

The unique Laughlin race is split into two parts on Saturday and Sunday with the 17 classes divided into five race groups running multiple laps each day.

Mexico’s Gus “Tavo” Vildosola Jr. surprised the field Saturday to take the first day Overall in his King Shocks factory supported No. 4 Trophy-Truck.  Steadily working his way through the field physically after starting eighth in the elapsed-time race, Vildosola Jr. took the corrected-time lead on Lap 7 first of 8 laps over the surprisingly rugged 6.25 mile race course from NASCAR Cup owner/driver Robby Gordon to finish in the lead.  “We repeated last year’s Saturday run and we just need to duplicate it tomorrow. I decided early on that we were just going to take it easy and run the first five or six laps and see how everything was shaking down and then hammer down at the end” comment “Tavo” after Saturday’s race.  Unfortunately the 2009 Laughlin win was just not in the cards for the rising young star, the No. 4 Trophy-Truck suffered drive-train frailure during Sunday’s portion of the two day event therefore ending the teams hope for their first LDC win.

Las Vegas’ Danny Anderson, driving for teammate Pat Dean who is recovering from shoulder surgery, overcame a first-half deficit of 51 seconds held by Saturday’s winner Harley Letner to win the unlimited Class 1.  Danny typically finds himself driving race cars supplied with competitors shocks but was able to claim victory in a Butch Dean and P.J. Flores prepared Bunderson class 1 harnessed with King Shocks. “I’d have to say old age and treachery overcame youth and skill. My plan was to let Harley go. I knew I wasn’t going to beat him by 50 seconds so I just let him go do his thing. About the third lap we come around and he had a flat tire and that was pretty much it.” commented an excited Anderson.   Adam Pfankuch, earned a pair of class wins on Sunday, winning Class 1-2/1600 and SCORE Lite where he drove Sunday for driver of record Rick St. John.  St. John, the defending SCORE Lite season point champion, drove to a six-second lead in SCORE Lite on Saturday before turning over a Duvel-VW to Pfrankuch. Pfankuch padded St. John’s lead by covering the course the fastest on Sunday for a 46-second victory over the husband and wife team of Michelle and Vic Bruckmann, who split the driving in their Lothringer-VW.

Donald Moss (Class 3, Ford Bronco) won for the seventh time in eight years. His win ties him for the most class wins in the history of this race with George Seeley. It was also the 31st career race win for Moss, a six-time SCORE class season point champion.

Among the other class winners  fitted with King Shocks were: Robert McBeath, (Class 10, Jimco-Honda), Dan Chamlee, (Class 7, Ford Ranger), Gavin Skilton, (Stock Mini, Honda Ridgeline) and Kevin Carr (Class 5, unlimited VW Baja Bug). Sportsman Car race winner was Rory Ward, (Chenowth-Chevy)

Also of note, the four-vehicle Wilson Motorsports team of Long Beach, Calif., saw brothers Randy and Ronny finish third and fourth in Class 1 and seventh and eighth overall while second generation Wilson desert racers Brian and Brad finished fourth and 15th respectively in Class 1-2/1600.  The Wilson Motorsports team is also armed with King Shock’s

2009 SCORE LDC Winners fitted with King Shocks

Larry Roeseler SCORE Trophy Truck - Leap Danny Anderson SCORE Class 1 James Scott SCORE Class 1 - Leap Donald Moss SCORE Class 3 Kevin Carr SCORE Class 5 Dan Chamlee SCORE Class 7 Robert McBeath SCORE Class 10 Rick St. John SCORE Lite Justin Davis SCORE Lite -LeapA Gavin Skilton SCORE Stock Mini Rory Ward SCORE Sportsman Car

Sources; SCORE-media